Health premiums now more than a new car

Premiums for employer-provided health insurance jumped 8-9 percent in 2011, passing $15,000 for family coverage — which is more than the cost of a Ford Fiesta.

That’s a big jump from the 3 percent increase in 2010. But it’s in line with historical increases that have averaged just over 10 percent per year since 2001, according to the annual Kaiser Family Foundation's Employer Health Benefits survey.

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Obama on health law Monday

POLITICO 44

The Kaiser survey also found that 2.3 million young adults now have coverage under their parents’ policies — double the recent U.S. Census estimate of gains since the ACA allowed young adults to stay on their parents’ policies until age 26. Kaiser surveyed employers about the numbers of dependents they were now covering, while the Census counted the net increase of young adults who have coverage under age 26.

Critics have blamed rising insurance premiums on the 2010 health care law, but Kaiser Family Foundation president and CEO Drew Altman said that’s not the case.

Altman attributed most of the increase to rising health costs. The new legal requirements that expanded preventive care and added those young adults contributed to about 1.5 percent of the price increase.

“Since we began doing this survey 13 years ago, worker contributions to premiums have increased 168 percent, wages 50 percent, and inflation 38 percent,” Altman wrote in an essay accompanying the release of the survey done by the foundation and the Health Research and Benefits Trust.

"There are people who blame everything on the Affordable Care Act, including the weather," he told POLITICO in an interview. "The big increase we see this year is not an increase of the Affordable Care Act.” In fact, he added the health reform legislation contains tools that could restrain cost growth in the future.

The rising costs of insurance “underscores that we need to do more about the underlying problem of health care costs in the country,” Altman added. “Right now the main weapon we have long term that could address the problem of health care costs term are the provisions of the Affordable Care Act. There's nothing else on the table.”

The average premium for employer-sponsored insurance for an individual was $5,429 and $15,073 for a family in 2011. But relatively little of the premium increase came directly out of the employees’ pockets, on average $22 more for an individual policy, and $132 more for a family policy. That’s not a statistically significant increase. But some economists say that health costs have been hitting the family pocketbook in another way, by slowing wage growth.

Employers on average paid an additional $358 in premiums for an individual policy, and $1,171 for a family. They have shifted some costs to workers. For instance, one in three covered workers now has a deductible of at least $1,000 for an individual, the survey conducted by Kaiser

The Obama administration attempted to head off likely attacks blaming the ACA for the price rise.

"These premiums were generally set in 2010, when insurance companies thought medical costs would be significantly higher than they turned out to be," an entry on the White House blog said. "The Bureau of Labor Statistics found that the health insurance employer cost index [a measure of the price of health care services] was the lowest it has been in over 10 years in the first half of 2011.

“Additionally, some insurers assumed that the Affordable Care Act would dramatically raise their costs. In the end, both assumptions were wrong — but insurance companies still charged high premiums and earned impressive profits," it said.

This article first appeared on POLITICO Pro at 11:22 a.m. on September 27, 2011.
CORRECTION: This story has been updated to correct the description of the impact of the premium increases.

"You can keep your insurance if you like it' and "Your premiums will go down %3000" ( lol....that should have been a clue to even the most dead-brains)..

And now I pay $1200/month ( it was $900/month) for our private insurance.

Obama and the Dems might just win at this As more and more of us decide we simply can't pay for all the mandates, ( language translation, chiropracitos, hair transplants, counseling, drug rehab etc ) and say the hell with it, we ever more throw our medical care onto the mercy of the govt.

Too bad..we were always able to care for ourselves, pay for ourselves, manage our own lives, until the govt mucked it all up.

Easy fix? Stop the mandates, let us buy health insurance across State lines ( freedom of commmerce has been completely ignored by our Feds for 30 years as each State has been free to lock out other States insurance), let us buy the insurance we want, not the insurance we are mandated to buy.

Keep in context Drew Altman is a radical New England liberal. Supported both Clinton and Obama, what this man tells you about the cost of health care vs Obamacare must be taken as a liberal talking point. Conservatives know better. I stopped reading after he said Obama care will not impact the cost of health care. The man is delusional and a radical liberal partisan.

well, the one good thing from this, is that the most-shocked, most surprised, victims of the evil pig democrats, are the useful idiots who voted for the lying thieving fascist traitor murder pig democrat hysterical pig anti-American scum.

BOcare: No tort reform. No financial incentive reforms. No interstate commerce reform. No physician inclusion. No common sense. BOcare DECREASES access/quality and INCREASES cost to the PAYERS while the "non-payers" are granted the opposite. I defy you liberal shmucks to refute this. I am relieved to know that BOcare is doomed to fail because of its unethical premise. Unfortunately, there is going to be MAJOR collateral damage when it bankrupts us.

Remember, this thing has only begun to kick in. Within 4 years, if not repealed it will be the straw that breaks the back of our already disastrous financial situation. The claims made about covering an additional 40 million people and rates going down while quality improves was pure fantasy andr lies and any thinking person could see through that BS. (I never saw a single actuarial analysis that supported any of the Dems lies about any of this) In the near future, if we don't completely collapse as a nation, there will be good health care for the rich and govt. officials. The rest will suffer long waits for mediocre care with a high probability of being turned down for expensive procedures. But hey, it's all about fairness right? The one silver lining will be seeing all the libs that supported this monstrosity crying like babies when they find out they are not to be included in the privileged group. Better buy some earplugs now.

If your one of those silly idiots who think the "poor" are not being cared for in our current system (a BO Hussein lie), then you haven't been to an emergency room lately have you? NOBODY is denied care...not even illegal aliens. You want to reform healthcare, modernize training programs in county hospitals to provide cheap and efficient care to the "poor" instead of ruining the whole system with socialized Marxist BOcare.

This has happened at mine and my Husband’s company. We've had to defer health insurance and be allowed to take 10% of our premiums back in cash for the family in order to meet our absolute necessities. This President is one man wrecking ball that we’ll never forget. We've been videotaping our experience the last 2 years and 9 months. The change is unbelievably stark but we need this to be seen by all future generations of our family. I never thought I’d say this but here I thought 43 was bad? Here we are broke doing everything we can not to default on our bills and now we have to be worried for our family about a race war our President is fomenting? This is so sick I really can’t believe my eyes or ears at this point.

Man the commentators on this thread are stupid. Did any of you read the article? The economic dynamics under discussion have been in play for at least the last decade (when there was no Obamacare). In fact, this year's increases are part of the same dynamic that healthcare reform is supposed to combat. Obamacare (which hasn't really even gone into effect) is not the reason for these rate increases. The reason for them is that we didn't pass comprehensive health care reform a decade ago.

So now all the Obama haters are blaming the free market...Obama did not force these ins. Co. to raise premiums. I shopped around and lowered my premium 20%. It's all about personal responsibility. Why do Obama haters think every person is responsible for contributing to military, infrastructure, bailout, tax giveaway spending, but no one is responsible for healthcare spending? Unless GOP has the courage to change the law that requires emergency care for all, they have no point. We are already paying for those costs, yet they get shifted around. With ACA, costs will be more transparent. And the GOP can then add all their wonderful ideas of cost cutting to the mix.